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* Target shares slump after holiday sales miss
* UnitedHealth rises after backing full-year forecast
* All eyes on signing of U.S.-China trade deal
* Indexes up: Dow 0.45%, S&P 0.30%, Nasdaq 0.37%
(Updates to open)
By Sruthi Shankar and Susan Mathew
Jan 15 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones indexes set
new record highs on Wednesday on a positive tone around trade
talks with China from Trump administration officials ahead of
the signing of an initial deal later in the day.
The three main Wall Street indexes rose after White House
economic adviser Larry Kudlow said negotiations on a Phase 2
deal will begin as soon as the Phase 1 was signed. China has pledged to increase purchases of U.S. manufactured
products, agricultural goods, energy and services as part of the
deal, according to a report on Tuesday. "Kudlow's reiteration that China is going to buy more is
positive and anything positive on trade helps markets," said
Robert Pavlik, chief investment strategist at SlateStone Wealth
LLC in New York.
Investor sentiment had earlier been dented by a report that
Washington would likely maintain tariffs on Chinese goods until
after the presidential election in November. Meanwhile, disappointing earnings updates from Bank of
America and Goldman Sachs weighed on the S&P 500 banking sector.
Bank of America Corp BAC.N reported better-than-expected
quarterly profit, but warned that of weak net interest income in
the first half of 2020, knocking shares 2%.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc GS.N reported a
bigger-than-expected fall in profit as it set aside more money
to cover legal costs. At 10:13 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was up 0.45% at 29,069.98. The S&P 500 .SPX was up 0.30% at
3,293.04 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was up 33.98 points at
9,285.31.
In other earnings-related news, UnitedHealth Group Inc
UNH.N , the largest U.S. health insurer, edged up 2.5% as it
affirmed its full-year outlook for 2020 adjusted earnings.
Retailer Target Corp TGT.N slumped 5.8% after it missed
its own expectations for 2019 holiday season sales, blaming
weakness in toys and electronics sales. Larger rival Walmart Inc
WMT.N fell 0.9%. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.46-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and a 1.63-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 42 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 95 new highs and 10 new lows.